Implementing a culture of innovation

Acknowledge that mindsets will have to shift. Start by accepting that your company culture must change in order to encourage innovation. Set up an innovation strategy. Take into account your organisation as a whole. Be realistic when it comes to budget constraints and the time that the transformation will take. The strategy must be supported from the top down. Management, including senior managers, must lead by example.

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Innovation is crucial for distinguishing your business from your competitors. Foster a culture of innovation because with it your company will be adaptive and capable of a fast response to any changes. Here are the necessary steps as formulated by the smartcompany.com.au website.

Appoint champions of innovation

There must be a team which takes responsibility for designing, monitoring and delivering the innovation plan. This team will carry out the strategy. Creation of promotional materials, all special events associated with the project, monitoring and reporting on project milestones – these will be the main tasks of this team. Strong emotions may emerge from workers who dislike change, so identify ways in which you can deal with any such resistance.

Some questions to be asked

Your organisation must examine internal barriers. These barriers may threaten the introduction of innovative thinking. So ask some essential questions. Are you asking team members to move ideas through several layers before accepting them? Are new ideas automatically failing because of legal scrutiny?

Provide training

Introduce innovation training and creative problem-solving tools since you need to train your workers to think in a way that encourages innovation. Provide your colleagues with techniques that will help them to approach problem solving in a creative way.

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Article source SmartCompany - Australian website for managers and entrepreneurs
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